Sand Stained Red
by BurningEternity
Summary: Sand pack is being invaded by an intruding pack Deathpack They are forced fight or flight. When Longtail's dead mate comes to tell him a message from the stars that will cange his and the pack's life. Forever.


Prologue  
Sheila heaved her body over the last of the rocks and ledges that covered the mountain, gasping for breath she struggled to get her foot-paws up with the rest of her. It did not work. Dangling helplessly over the edge of the mountain she tried to call for help but the wind just carried her voice in the opposite direction. The rest of the pack was just a few meters away from her, and she wondered how on earth could they not see her. Suddenly she gave out a blood-curdling scream as she lost all her footing, falling at a terrifying speed towards the ground below. She landed with a sickening thud on a lone ledge. Longtail had started a head count, it was always necessary to check that every wolf was there and not left behind, he stopped mid-count " Where's Sheila?" he asked worriedly, Sheila was his mate and he knew that she was going to have pups soon. None of the pack had seen her after they started the climb. Grubb, a gray wolf with green eyes stepped forward

" I haven't seen her, but I thought I heard a voice coming from the mountainside where we had just come from" Grubb shrugged and then continued

" I don't know, It could've been anything". Longtail immediately bounded back to the mountainside, what he saw made him gasp in fear "No...Sheila" his voice was barely a whisper. He looked down at the broken bloody body of his mate, his eyes damp, he slowly lifted his head and howled a sad mournful howl, and the others joined him. Thick with grief he padded towards his pack

" Sheila...is dead" Suddenly he felt he could not walk anymore, his eyes blinked once...twice and then shut, he then fell into a troubled sleep. Longtail twitched and jerked all through the night, nightmares entered through his mind, all he could see was Sheila's motionless body. He woke twice to find himself gasping; this indeed was going to be a very long night.

End Prologue

1

Longtail was pondering over which piece of prey he should eat, a gerbil or a lizard? He hated the taste of lizard scales and he hated having to eat gerbil fur. Grubb was already on his way over so he decided to ask him "Hey Grubb! the wolf turned to his direction. Longtail continued, Which one tastes better. A Gerbil or a Lizard? Grubb thought for a minute "Personally, I would ve gone for the Gerbil, they taste delicious he licked his snout hungrily. At that Longtail immediately took a bite of the Gerbil This is delicious, thanks Grubb, you can have this, he pushed the lizard towards Grubb with his snout. Grubb gave a snort of disgust and padded away, but he couldn t resist the invitation. He immediately tramped back and stuffed the lizard in his mouth; he then walked away with a cloud of sand stirring under his paws, acting as if nothing had ever happened. Longtail roared with a fierce laughter that disrupted all the wolves around him It s okay, just one of Grubb s funny days embarrassed he stifled another laugh.

Longtail watched a scuffle between two apprentices. One the left a small gray timber wolf named scratch, and on the right a large gray wolf named Dawn. Dawn had leapt on top of Scratch and harmlessly bit the scruff of his neck, Scratch went flat and then his rear-end sprang upwards and Dawn was sent flying over Scratch s head, he landed with a thump. Clouds of sand flew up into the air, when it cleared Dawn was shown uninjured. Longtail padded up to them That was pretty good, But I bet I could do a little better . Dawn puffed out his chest Ha, wanna bet? he then sprang forward, Longtail immediately rolled onto his back. Dawn leaped up into the air, ready to land on Longtail. He watched Dawn s claws stretch out. Just a little closer Now! Longtail grabbed Dawn s outstretched paws, and directed them towards the ground. Dawn was thrown to the ground. He gasped, How How d you do that? Dawn coughed in the gathering clouds of sand. easy, but I am not telling Longtail said, he then walked away, leaving the two wolves to stare at each other in awe.

***  
Rose was just coming out of the nursery den when she spotted a Kangaroo rat munching on something in a patch of grass ooh, that looks good she padded silently towards the rat, crouching low to the ground she stalked it. The rat lifted it s head and squeaked, it ran, but not for long Gotcha Rose roared as she pounced on the rat, she killed it with a bite to the neck. She ate the rat whole in a few mouthfuls.  
Rose stared at a group of wolves headed out of camp; she guessed that this was the hunting patrol. She recognized them all. Rusty. Rusty was a great big red wolf with icy blue eyes. He was quite clumsy and shy, but he had a lot of fire in him, she could tell. Brogg. A fragile gray timber wolf that was the exact opposite of Rusty, his yellow eyes always shone with a fierce determination. He wasn t afraid to snap and he would do it on various occasions. Rock. Rock was an unpredictable arctic wolf with blue eyes, his fur did bother him a lot until he found a way to trim his thick pelt by rubbing it against a cactus, yes it was painful but it did work And then there s Brook. A beautiful orange pelted desert-born wolf with green eyes and a glowing personality; she was everyone s favorite wolf. Most of the time Brook was fairly quiet, but when she s not she is usually bouncing around in eager readiness for whatever s ahead.  
Rose waved her tail have fun . And try not to fight she added quickly

Brogg lead the hunting party out of camp. Barely noticing Rose s call. He lightly followed a well-used path that lead to good hunting grounds, supplied with plenty of Desert Hares, Kangaroo Rats, Lizards and Scorpions _Ugh, Scorpions _Brogg shuddered at the bitter, salty taste of the poisonous creatures, he hated them a lot and would sometimes squash them for amusement.  
Along the way Rusty had stumbled over some perfectly avoidable object over six times, which was irritating Brogg, and to add on top of that, Rusty had scared away the would ve-been first prey of the trip by getting his fat pelt caught on a cactus. Brogg came to a halt just at the end of the trail, he could smell something, Mouse! He thought happily. It was clear that the others had scented it too because they were all silent as a stone. Suddenly a small gray shape darted out of some long dry grass. Rusty was at it in less than a second. He never looked where he was going so instead of catching the mouse, he rammed right into a cactus OWOWOWOW he yelped, pulling his muzzle free of the needle-like spines. The other wolves couldn t help but laugh at Rusty s spiked muzzle. That was IT. Rusty had better know when to run because Brogg was going to go off like a strike of lightning Come here right now Cactus pelt, I should be shoving a rock down your throat right now, but sadly there are restrictions to that he spat. Rusty hesitantly came forward I am so very sorry Brogg sir he meant it. Brogg decided not to be so harsh so he tried his best to answer calmly You made us lose our prey maybe even the only prey we had a chance to get he paused for a second to take his breath Lets go back to camp, no use being here if we can t catch anything _ Clumsy fool_. The others followed, mumbling angrily to each other.

2

Rusty padded silently into camp. A few of the wolves from the hunting party were snorting with laughter for some reason unknown to him. He sighed and looked around for Rose. He spotted her behind a large boulder, ears pricked and nose to the ground, hunting. He was about to walk over to her but he thought better of it, not wanting to cause any more trouble.  
When Rusty heard the small, pained squeak of a mouse he decided to talk  
Hey Rose! You caught a mouse? he asked Yup! Rose replied happily as she washed around her muzzle and paws. Rusty had kicked up some sand while talking to Rose. He took in air with a deep breath, not noticing the sand that was still in the air; he choked briefly when the sand scratched his throat. Embarrassed he padded away Bye Rusty Rose called behind him.  
Rusty padded to where Brogg was talking to Longtail  
Our hunt did not go well thanks to a certain, clumsy wolf, Brogg said grumpily  
Go easy on him Longtail replied calmly Every wolf makes mistakes  
Huh, not like that one. Bottle up all his luck and he could destroy the world Brogg retorted. Rusty decided to leave the grumpy captain alone.

Longtail sat uncomfortably in the sand, listening to Brogg complain. He sighed and searched his thoughts for something to clear his mind  
Then he completely forgets where he is going and rams into a cactus Brogg finished Interesting Longtail mumbled. He stood and then stretched, his legs aching from sitting for so long, and padded away.


End file.
